A Whole New World
by triinithy
Summary: Voldemort is dead, and the golden trio are getting ready to start their sixth year, bearing the scars of the last few months. But Hermione will learn that the magical world and Hogwarts are not quite as she thought. She will quickly have to figure out how to juggle her past, this new bond with Harry and Ron, the fact that she is a creature, and COURTING? HG/BZ/more, HP/DM/more
1. Chapter 1

Hey all! So this is my first fanfiction in well, almost forever. It might start out a bit dark, but will get better with time for sure. Currently I have around 10 chapters outlined so hopefully those will be written and published quickly. My main aim is to improve my writing ability, so I welcome any critic you might have.

I hope you will enjoy the story!

* * *

"No, you really don't have to see me off from the tracks, I will be fine. You should go so you aren't late for your appointment" Hermione says, forcing her lips to curl up in a smile to her parents.

"Are you sure? It's no hassle dear" Her mother answers, eyes scanning Hermione. For what she is not sure.

"Yes, I'm sure, I'm 16 and perfectly capable of finding my way to the train myself. Thank you for the ride though. I will be sure to send letters every week!" Accepting her trunk from her dad after he removes it from the car, quickly giving them both a hug. She throws out a quick "I will miss you both!" over her shoulder before taking decisive steps towards the station doors.

As the doors of Kingscross station closes behind her, her shoulders slump a little, a small sign of the exhaustion she feels. Hermione slowly makes her way to a stand selling coffee before continuing to platform 9 ¾. She allows her feet to further slow as she is nearing her target, sipping her coffee, trying her best to gather herself once again before facing the magical population. Right before the portal she brings up a compact mirror, to make sure her make up is covering everything, covering the leftover signs of her previous malnutrition and her current sleep deprivation. Finding no more reasons to delay, she takes a deep breath and steps through the wall, pointedly ignoring the stares of the younger students once she is through, and how her mere presence seem to affect the mood of the people on the platform. A little girl points and says something to her mom, who quickly smacks the hand down, whispering something intensely to the girl.

As she picks a spot to wait for Harry and Ron she observe them, they all seem so happy, slowly getting over her entrance and returning to talking about the coming school year. Promises of owls, letters, and Christmas celebrations being exchanged between parents and children. Reunions between friends after a long summer occurring all over the place.

Most people know very little about what happened before summer, when Voldemort died. But they know enough to place her there, the golden trio's capture by him last May was after all the trigger for him to come out to the public again, trying to reclaim his power over the wizarding world, and almost succeeding according to what she has heard. Moreover there was that blasted picture. Whilst she was not even close to a main actor in the final battle, at least as far as the public knows, there was that one picture taken before Sirius and Remus managed to chase away the reporter. The picture where Molly was standing over the three of them as they were clutching to each other, where you could see some of the bruises and wounds on their skin, and the after effects of the torture and starvation.

It is regarded as the picture of victory now, most preferring to focus on Molly, she is after all the one hailed as the killer of Voldemort. Hermione likes to think that in the picture Molly looks completely like wild magic, hair crackling, and gaze murderous against anyone daring to take a step closer to them. Like a mama bear protecting her cubs, which is probably close to the truth, exactly like wild magic Molly was a bit feral, the final battle broke her in a way that Hermione prefers not to think about. Even if the focus of the picture was not them, the popularity of the picture did lead to people focusing on her, Harry, and Ron some more though. They were not the only ones who had been captured, but they were the only ones whose injuries were captured and spread around, making people talk about their role, and what happened to them. She had considered if she should just come out with a tell all, remove all the speculation and intrigue, but it was not just her story, so she lived with the stares. There is no guarantee that the complete truth would make them stop anyway, even if Ron and Luna would have allowed her to tell it.

More whispers through the crowd catches her attention. Finally, they are here! Sirius is in the front, eyes daring anyone to step forwards, taking swift steps to the train. Ron sees her first, not even a few feet into the station, grabbing Harry and making a run for it. As they get past Sirius, he has a brief look of confusion before seeing Hermione, who is not quite running, but definitely moving quickly to meet the boys. Allowing himself to relax a little with her there, he instead decides to focus on gently pulling Ginny along after the boys, the girl looking terrified as she tries to hide behind him.

"Mione! You should have let us pick you up instead of coming alone!" Ron shouts out as he gets close, Harry stumbling along trying to keep up with his long strides. Both are wearing huge smiles.

"Ugh, Ron, let me go!" Harry snaps out, managing to free his arm from Ron's grip, pushing him backwards to pull Hermione into a hug.

"Not my fault you're so slow mate, one would think with your seeker reflexes you would be a bit quicker" says Ron, somehow engulfing them both into a hug.

Hermione taking the chance to truly cuddle up in their arms as they are bickering a bit. "Boys boys, take it easy, there is plenty of time for us to catch up"

"Maybe even in a bit more private setting aye?" a chuckling Sirius chimes in from the sidelines, gesturing with one arm to the rest of the platform, with Ginny sticking close to his other side. Hermione looks up from her spot in the middle of the sandwich, breaking out and pulling the two newcomers into a hug, albeit a bit unwillingly from Ginny's side. "Sirius! Freedom seems to be treating you well, I mean this new suit even makes you look respectable. Fred and George would be positively scandalized seeing their idol looking this grownup" earning her a chuckle and a head rub from the man himself "Hah, yea, freedom is definitely not all I thought it would be, all this responsibility is going to turn me into some boring grump soon enough".

Hermione shares another smile with him before she turns her head closer to Ginny's, whispering "I missed you… Remember, we are also free now, I am fine, and you are too" As the girl slowly raises her hand to clutch Hermione a bit closer, Ginny whispers back "Will we ever be free? Whenever I close my eyes I see you in that room, how can I be free when I'm still there?" At that Sirius strengthens his grip on them both, eyes refusing to go down to them even when Hermione looks to him, trying to find some form of help. Hermione understands what he is trying to say only she can understand, and only she can help. She takes a moment to think before answering. "We decide to be free. The room might always be a part of us, but we can decide what it means. I try and see it as proof of our strength, and proof of our love for each other. They didn't break us, even though they tried."

After a few seconds of silence Ginny disentangles their limbs, stepping away. "But they did, didn't they? They did break us, just not in the way they wanted…"

At that Ron steps up, placing a hand gently on Ginny's shoulder "Hey, let's get going yea? Get you to your friends, and us to a compartment to catch up?" picking up both of their belongings.

Harry shares a last hug with Sirius, promising to write as much as possible before he starts to follow Ron, bringing Hermione with him. The four walk in silence until they find a compartment with Ginny's friends. "Ah, I got a delivery for you all, take good care of her yea?" Ron jokes, actually earning a reaction from Ginny, who smacks him on the arm "Pff, I can handle myself, as I think I have showed plenty of times!" She quickly steps inside, closing the door before anyone else has time to say something else.

"Hah, seems she still has enough energy to get mad at you at least. That has to be a good sign" Harry says. Ron scratches his head, actually looking relieved with his sister's temper. "Yea, I guess…"

The lighthearted conversation continues as they are looking for an empty compartment for the three of them. Until Hermione opens a compartment which seemed empty, finding Draco and Pansy "Oh, sorry… I didn't know you were in here"

Draco has his head in Pansy's lap as she is gently stroking his hair. Both tense up as Hermione stands there, awaiting a response. Draco meets her gaze, and she can see they are looking a bit glassy. As he opens his mouth to say something Pansy interrupts "Well, here we are! Kindly turn around and leave as you were obviously mistaken." Gaze promising pain if Hermione says anything else.

Hermione looks back down at Draco, whatever he was about to say seems gone now. His eyes firmly stuck to the side of the compartment, away from her, even as she keeps staring, trying to decide if she should say something more, he is after all one of them now. Harry places a hand on her shoulder "Of course. We didn't mean to disturb you. Let's go Mione" he says, as he slowly closes the door.

"Here guys, this one is empty!" Ron says two doors down, apparently having missed what just happened.

Once they all manage to shuffle inside together with their belongings Ron pulls the other two down onto one side, pulling Hermione close, nuzzling her hair. It takes some coordination but eventually they are all in some form of pile, Hermione in the middle, but all touching each other somewhere.

"We missed you Mione" Harry starts, irritation slipping into his voice. "I was so restless without you there. Even if I was supposed to be living with Sirius, I still got to see Ron regularly, allowing me to see he was there, alive. But you hardly even answered our owls" he says chidingly. Ron staying silence, not voicing his opinion on the matter, but tightening his grip on both of them.

She blinks a few time, trying to keep the tears at bay. "My parents were so upset once I got back, I think they were considering locking me inside if it kept me from going back. If they could they would have built me a glass cage, all to keep me safe. Even owls made them scowl. I had to push it all away, had to make them believe I was okay, that nothing had happened." Looking up at Ron "I didn't mean to make you worry, I know you both had better things to focus on, I just couldn't handle writing anything down whilst pretending. I missed you both though, I couldn't really sleep." At that she releases a breath, putting her head on Ron's shoulder, whilst grabbing Harry's hand.

Ron's gruff voice answers her, silencing whatever protest was about to come out of Harry's mouth "We weren't too busy for you, but I understand. We are here now though, as we promised." She feels Harry wriggle around a bit before he also adds "Yes, as we promised." Squeezing her hand, before adding venomously "They shouldn't have forced you to leave though!" apparently still a bit upset, but deciding to focus his feelings on others than her.

"They did what they thought was best." She says. "How are the rest? Molly? Fleur?"

"Mom is… they try, but it's hard. I wasn't sure if I should leave, but Charlie was adamant that they could handle it, and that I needed to go with Ginny." As Ron speaks, he slowly strokes her hair, Hermione is not sure if it is for her benefit or his. "Mom didn't want Ginny to go you know, she has been focusing a lot of her attention of trying to help her. It wasn't really helping though, I think it's a bit like you were saying, she is trying to create a glass cage, and Ginny just sees it as another cage. It's the same with Fleur, Mom tries to help, I think she thinks if she can fix them everything will be okay again, but when nothing works it brings her down even more, which then brings them down. Gerrard has been trying to help, but I'm not sure if he as actually helping or hurting either. "

"Gerrard?"

"Ah yea, an old family friend. He came claiming to help, but it's a little late now ain't it? Nothing but time can help them, and even that is doubtful. Fleur at least has the baby to think about, Mom just has us. The other day she called me Bill… She blames herself for his death and it's breaking her"

At that Harry chimes in "She's just a bit confused Ron, it will pass. Bill made his own choice, to fight for a future for his family, you know that, and she will know that eventually."

Sensing that there was not much more to say to improve the situation, Hermione tries to change the subject a little. "They will talk you know, and stare. Like at the platform. How do you want to handle it?" Aiming her question more at Ron, than at Harry.

At that Ron grows tenser, sitting up a bit more. "Let them stare, they need to get bloody over it. It's over ain't it? They should be focusing on being happy and living their lives, not focusing on trying to figure out whatever happened to us, or if we are on the verge of a breakdown, like Luna…"

Ah Luna, Hermione thinks. She did not handle the freedom all that well, and they claimed her crazy when she decided being free meant being completely free, flooing into the Diagon Alley bare as the day she was born. "Do we know what happened to her?"

Harry is the one who answers "Sirius said they took her to Saint Mungus, but she didn't stay there long. Her father collected her and took her home, and no one has seen her since as far as I know. Neville might know more though."

With that the conversation dies out, the three choosing to simply take comfort in their closeness, and Hermione drifting off to her first calm sleep in over a month.


	2. Chapter 2 - Arriving at Hogwarts

So apparantly I got dumped. As in just a few days after my first chapter. Which lead to me being quite sad and distracted. But eeh, another chapter!

* * *

The ride up to the castle had been unremarkable, the three students enjoying their last moments of solitude with each other, talking about their respective summer adventures. As they sat down amongst their peers in the great hall, Hermione could not help but notice the slight decline in sixth year students. She had always thought it odd how the magical world sorted out further education, with apprenticeships starting from the sixth year, leading to a steadily decreasing student population in the latter years until there were hardly enough for one class in the seventh year. McGonagall had said they would talk more about her options after her OWL results, yet another thing she missed due to the kidnapping. Hermione had tried reading books about it during summer, but the ones she found had not said much. It was common to continue your general education until you were either accepted as an apprentice or to a specialisation school. A witches' Guide to a Career had included a list of different schools but not how to apply, or even a start of term date.

Harry's voice breaks her out of her musings "Hey, has anyone seen Neville yet?"

Looking around she sees he is right, Neville is missing, together with Parvati, how did she miss that?

"No, didn't see him on the train either." Seamus answers.

"Probably just transferred, he always did like his herbology and Hogwarts don't got any open spots for that." Dean says, shrugging his shoulders.

Would Neville really transfer without telling them? After all they have been through together? Hermione thinks before she voices her thoughts, "I don't know, it doesn't sound like Neville to just leave without sending an owl or something…"

Ron finally looks up from his food to meet her gaze, answering in a soft voice, "He could be with Luna though, right?" Prompting both Dean and Seamus to look away, eyes downcast, focusing on their food.

"We'll send him an owl and ask after the feast. We can also ask if he knows what happened to Luna." Harry says, voice strong and decisive. Hermione appreciated that about Harry, he knew that she needed to handle things right away, and disappearing friends definitely needs to be handled. Of course, he still has his less desirable quirks, she thinks as he changes the topic to his one true obsession… "So, everyone ready for quidditch try-outs later this week then?" Harry says, patting Dean roughly on his back.

The rest of the feast was spent talking about easy things, which mainly meant quidditch, leaving Hermione to her thoughts. At some point her eyes fall on Ginny further down the table, head held high talking to some girlfriends, hands shaking. As she notices Hermione looking, she meets her eyes, a small sad smile on her lips, but it gives Hermione hope. Maybe coming to Hogwarts was the right choice after all.

Similarly, she can see Draco on the other side of the hall, surrounded by his Slytherin kin. Impressively, Pansy appears to be alternating between clutching his arm, putting food on his plate, and from the looks of things leading the conversations around him. Meanwhile, his eyes are stuck to the plate, slowly pushing the food around, not even noticing her staring at him. She must find out what happened after they left, it must have been bad, with how fierce he had been that night and how broken he seems now. Something inside of her hurts seeing it, some motherly instinct trying to claw itself out screaming 'comfort the small ones'.

* * *

As the feast draws to a close McGonagall comes up to them, followed by Cormac McLaggen, the seventh year prefect. "You three, Harry, Ron, Hermione – I want to see you at my office first thing tomorrow, to talk about your future - here at Hogwarts or otherwise." She says sharply before turning around and walking away, leaving no room for an answer, and Cormac.

"Sixth years, with me! I have your schedules already, hurry up, I don't fancy waiting here just because you decided your second helping of dessert was worth more than my time." Cormac says, waving a stack of parchment in his hand as he slowly starts to walk out of the great hall, no look back to even see if they are listening.

That is odd, she thinks as she pulls a reluctant Ron up from his precious food, joining the other sixth years in scrambling after Cormac up to… what appears to be the Gryffindor tower? Definitely odd.

"Hey Cormac, I know you think we are itty bitty babies and all that, well except for when you want to hook up with a gal, but I swear we know where the tower is by now! - No need to hold our hands, I wasn't even done with my first dessert." Seamus yells as they get close.

"If you shut your trap for a few more minutes I can show you what I need to, and then you can go bother the elves for more cake all you want brat." He counters before muttering, "As if I wouldn't rather be doing something else…" Continuing his path into the Gryffindor common room.

As they arrived into tower, Hermione was starting to agree with Seamus, what in Merlin's name could Cormac show them in the tower that they did not already know? Either way, as the small gathering slowly pours into the common room she allows herself to look over the familiar setting. Taking a slow breath she can smell the fire, slight quidditch sweat, and something spicy, like fireworks, - probably a leftover from Fred and George. Everything that makes Gryffindor tower their home. The rest of the years where nowhere to be seen, probably unpacking in their new rooms and getting to know their roommates, or still in the great hall enjoying the dessert.

"As you might know the stairs to the left leads to the boys' dormitory, and the stairs to the right to the girls'." Cormac started, triggering a snicker, which quickly spread to the rest until everyone where trying not to laugh in varying success. "Yea yea, laugh if you want. - Anyway, as I was saying, the dormitories go from first years on the first floor and then up. Contrary to popular rumours the upper years are not only on the top to make it harder to sneak into your lovers rooms." A wolf whistle rang through the room, Seamus again of course. Cormac tactfully decided to ignore it.

"It also makes it possible to restrict the rooms from the lower years. At your age the school sees you as practically adults and treats you as such. This means that from now on you won't have to share a room, however no lower years are allowed into the sixth year rooms. You may not tell them anything about this either, it causes unnecessary drama you see. – So yea, that's the end of my required speech, off with you! Go explore your new rooms or something. - Oh, and girls, my door is always open if you need something!" Ending a very tactful speech for being Cormac, with a silly eyebrow wiggle, not surprising anyone after all these years.

* * *

Whilst the boys where rushing up their stairs, shouting about who was in what room, the girls slowly made their way up whilst shooting Cormac dirty glares. Well Hermione, and Fay were at least, not sure about Lavender. As she entered the sixth year hall it was clear they could not pick a room, the doors already had their name plates on them, one door for each girl. Entering her own room it was clear whoever designed the rest of Gryffindor tower designed it, with the same maroon and gold double bed. Whilst the room was obviously a bit smaller than their old dorm, it had its own hearth complete with a fluffy mat and loveseat next to it, a modestly sized bookshelf, and a desk for studying. The sole window overlooked the quidditch pitch, exactly the sort of view she wanted… Her trunk was at the usual spot beneath her bed, probably put there by some poor house elf.

Seeing no reason for exploring her new room too closely Hermione walked out to see if the other rooms were any different. As she was meeting Lavender in the hall they could hear this violent rustling sound. Taking a deep breath, Hermione restrained the urge to draw her wand and shove Lavender into the safety of her room.

"Oi, where do you think this leads Harry? It's locked" Ron's lovely, angelic voice could be heard above the rustling down the hall.

Sharing a look with Lavender they both made their way down to the end of the hallway where there was a door with no nameplate and a lock. The door was visibly shaking from what appeared to be Ron trying to open it, muttering alohomora. She could at least give him credit for not giving up.

"Ron you git, ever wondered if it's locked for a reason?" She said before quickly unlocking the door, making Ron fall forwards with a heavy grunt.

"Couldn't you have warned me first silly woman?" Above him was what appeared to be the rest of the boys, trying their best to either not laugh, or step over him to explore the other side of the door.

"Hey Mione, seems we got our own mini common room now" Harry, ever the pleaser says, spreading his arms in a welcoming fashion to the room. What he said seems true she notes as she steps in, the room behind them was truly the common room downstairs in miniature, a few sofas and tables, complete with another door on the other side leading to the boys rooms.

"Oh, I guess this is why you always saw the sixth and sevenths years so little." Lavender adds, stepping over Ron to get into the room to take a look around "I always assumed they were just off studying or something".

Meanwhile Seamus was slowly coming to a realization, a realization that made a wide lecherous smile blossom on his face. "Does this mean we have free access to the girl's rooms?"

"Oh please! Did you not notice the lock Ron so smoothly tried to get past? Just because you can now freely enter if a girl lets you doesn't mean you have free access." Hermione scoffed out whilst reaching a hand out to Ron.

* * *

After that the rest of the sixth year girls arrived, having explored their rooms more than Lavender and Hermione. The evening was spent relaxing in the common room exchanging words about summer. Tt was almost hilarious how much everyone did their best to avoid talking about anything that happened at the end of last term. Not that Hermione could judge, she did not want to be the one to bring up any memories, especially not in front of Ron now that he was finally getting better, and understandably neither did anyone else. It did lead to some awkward manoeuvring though, what with none of the so called golden trio wanting to talk about most of their summer.

"How is your godfather anyway Harry? Enjoying his freedom?" Said Dean in an attempt for a neutral subject. "I still can't believe they locked up the wrong person all those years…"

Drawing in a slow breath, considering what to actually answer. Sirius freedom was amazing, and he had hoped it would solve some of his issues. That some of the craziness from Azkaban would finally subside. "Mainly very busy, there has been so much work with getting his inheritance back, sorting out houses-"

At that Ron bursts out laughing, finally relaxing completely and putting his feet up on the table in front of him. "Throwing out the occasional mean relative who had moved in you mean? You should have seen their faces when Sirius the outcast came and threw them out!" Demonstrating various shocked and horrified faces.

Harry throws Ron a look of approval. "Ah yea, he truly enjoyed that one, possibly a bit too much - But honestly, I don't think he has had time to process it yet, that he is actually free." Leaning forwards a little in his seat, as if to tell them a secret "It was amazing the first time we went out to Diagon Alley, he was so jumpy, but then he insisted on running into every shop to buy something. Did you know there is a shop that only sells fancy hats? We now have more fancy hats than Neville's grandma, he even put some up on pedestals around the house!" Bringing a hand up to ruffle his hair to cover his eyes a bit, the same unconscious act he does when some firsties hero worship shows. "However, other than that I haven't really seen him much. We even had to cancel our trip to Italy because of some bank matter, not to mention all the political nonsense about his chair in the Wizengamot"

"Speaking of Neville" Hermione says, staring intensely at Harry and Ron.

Her words makes Ron tense up, raising his hands and saying, "Oh, common Mione, give the bloke some space. Didn't his grandma end up in the hospital after her fight with Bellatrix?"

"Isn't that all the more reason to contact him? Maybe he needs us?" She quickly replies, eyes wide and harsh.

Around them the rest seem uncomfortable, prompting Harry to intervene again. "Hey, let's go send that letter than shall we? Ron, you know she's right, he won't mind a letter, might even appreciate it." He says, as he gets up and gestures towards his room. "Thanks for the evening everyone, cya tomorrow"

* * *

As they leave Hermione can't help but noticing that Ron still seems tense. She refrains from commenting out of respect, ignoring how he skips helping them write and send the letter as he stretches out his frame on the identical loveseat in Harry's room.

After her and Harry finish sending Hedwig out with a quick note to Neville, they share a look, coming to a silent decision like only friends can. With a battle cry they simultaneously jump over the loveseat crashing down on Ron, breaking his staring contest with the fireplace.

"Ugh, can't breath… please- your too heavy!" Ron coughs out, even as he pulls both laughing teens down on top of him.

"You know, I would almost believe your pain if you weren't trying to sniff my bloody hair" Harry laughs out, giving up on stopping the red head and instead opting to draw Hermione closer.

Hermione decides to relish in the contact a bit before breaking the silence. "You know, we should probably go sleep… - Remember McGonagall wants to meet us early tomorrow." Making no move to leave the dogpile.

Harry slowly gets up "You can always sleep here if you want" looking at her hopefully.

"I.. It wouldn't be…"

"Please Mione" Ron says from beneath her.

"Okay, but not every night. People will start getting ideas, and you know they would blame me" She says, more for herself than them. Truthfully she could not imagine sleeping alone now that they were so close by. Something within her just felt restless without them. Quite similar to the feeling of walking down a dark alley by yourself, except it was not her, it was all of them alone in separate alleys.

So with that they went to bed. Hermione transfiguring some sleeping wear to avoid having to sneak back and forth, and all three squeezing into Harry's bed. Ron on his back in the middle with an arm around each of them, and the two smaller teens sleeping half on top of him. The last thing Hermione remembers thinking was 'thank Merlin that the beds are at least double size', and then, hell started.


End file.
